Chapter 30
Chapter 30
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 30
Chapter Title: Trap (3)
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030
9. Trap (3)
8.
The most important thing when adventurers formed a party was positions. Who would take on what role?
Those positions were largely divided into three categories.
Tank, dealer, and supporter.
Among them, the most unique position was the supporter.
Originally, supporters were, broadly speaking, mages.
They were mages with the talent to use supporter magic—that is, healing or recovery spells.
However, even in the world of mages, supporters were classified as an entirely different class.
At the same time, supporters received different treatment within adventurer parties.
“Adventurers decide a priority order for who dies first in dangerous moments before heading out on an adventure. Everyone except the supporter.”
Supporters received the most precious treatment in an adventurer party.
The reason was simple.
“Anyway, if the supporter dies, everyone dies.”
The supporter's abilities were directly tied to the lives of the party members.
That was why adventurers put in a great deal of effort to recruit supporters with outstanding abilities.
Dibo was no different.
“Now the party will finally start functioning like a real party!”
When he heard they were going to find a supporter, he was delighted at first.
‘I won’t have to worry about dying anymore.’
For Dibo, who always had to take the frontline tank role, the existence of a supporter was more reassuring than anything.
At the same time, he had expectations.
“If the boss remembers their name, they must be impressive, right?”
El Pam wouldn’t bring back just any ordinary supporter.
“So, where is this Ralph person?”
El Pam spoke to Dibo, who was excited with anticipation.
“Over there.”
Dibo tilted his head as he looked where El Pam pointed.
“Isn’t that Slum Ground over there?”
Slum Ground.
It referred to a section of the northern part of the port city Lis, a place filled with all sorts of unsavory things, just like the name implied.
Of course, most cities had slums. They couldn’t not have them. Kerning City had slums, and the magic city Ellinia had them too.
“Boss, isn’t that a dangerous place?”
However, Lis’s Slum Ground had the worst reputation among all such slums.
That made sense, given the nature of a port city. Lis drew adventurers from Victoria Island as well as all corners of the Maple World.
Naturally, criminals gathered too, making the security and quality worse than anywhere else.
Even seasoned adventurers hesitated to set foot there lightly.
“It might be dangerous.”
Of course, it was a meaningless danger to El Pam.
El Pam had already reached the 3rd Circle.
Moreover, El Pam was confident. Hunting adventurers was easier than hunting monsters.
“We’re not going there to stir up trouble, so don’t worry too much.”
Decisively, El Pam wasn’t going there to hunt someone.
At El Pam’s words, Dibo gave an awkward smile.
‘Who’s worried about the boss?’
Dibo knew that full well.
Even Dibo himself wasn’t particularly afraid of the half-baked criminal adventurers here.
‘What I’m worried about is bringing someone from a place like this.’
The problem was that the adventurers in a place like this couldn’t possibly be decent people.
‘Especially not a bishop.’
On top of that, they were going to recruit supporter bishop adventurers.
People responsible for the party’s lives.
Putting a criminal in such an important role?
El Pam, aware of Dibo’s concerns, said,
“He’s not a criminal.”
“Right?”
“He just loves money.”
“Huh?”
El Pam offered no further explanation to the surprised Dibo.
He simply stepped forward.
And so, El Pam visited the gambling dens overflowing throughout Lis’s slums.
At last, El Pam arrived.
“Found him.”
The one he had been searching for so diligently.
Dibo, who had followed El Pam and suffered quite a bit in the process, brightened up and asked,
“Who is it?”
“Over there.”
Dibo turned his head at El Pam’s words and tilted it again.
“Over there? There’s just a bear of a man with an insanely huge build and a scary face.”
“That’s him.”
“Huh?”
“That’s the one.”
“No, I mean, you’re saying that guy who looks like he could crush someone barehanded is a bishop? He looks like a warrior no matter how you slice it.”
Dibo reacted with utter disbelief.
“You sure you’re not mistaken?”
El Pam didn’t answer Dibo’s repeated questions.
There was no need to.
“I’m certain.”
No one else, but El Pam knew Ralph well.
‘Because I can’t forget the moment he killed all my comrades.’
In that instant, a memory from that day flashed in El Pam’s mind.
9.
The moment monsters burst out from the Mystic Gate, the world turned into hell.
Everyone despaired at the monsters’ appearance.
So the world didn’t know.
That the Black Mage’s followers began moving in earnest amid the chaos.
That was why the Black Mage’s followers dealt a devastating blow to the Maple World, one that defied belief.
The most representative case was the death of Mikhail, the knight commander who could be called the heart of the Cygnus Knights.
A group of adventurers who followed the Black Mage, known as Black Paradise, killed Mikhail, the commander of the Cygnus Knights.
After that, Black Paradise roamed the Maple World, hunting countless adventurers.
El Pam’s party was one of them.
In truth, it couldn’t even be called a hunt.
It was a one-sided massacre.
The sole survivor was El Pam.
Four years after that day, El Pam finally succeeded in avenging his fallen comrades.
By then, he had hunted down every adventurer in Black Paradise, every one who followed the Black Mage.
At the end of that hunt, the last one he faced was Bishop Ralph.
As one of Black Paradise’s core members, he had survived until the end, so El Pam got to hear it.
“Why did you follow the Black Mage? Was there some grand reason?”
Ralph’s reason for following the Black Mage.
“He offered the most money, that’s all.”
A laughable reason.
And that laughable reason was what brought El Pam here.
“You’re Ralph, right?”
“That’s me.”
“I have a proposal. I’d like you to join my party.”
El Pam made a party invitation to Ralph.
It wasn’t easy to understand.
El Pam and Ralph had bad blood between them. The worst kind of bad blood.
The Black Paradise Ralph belonged to had killed all of El Pam’s comrades, and El Pam had completed their vengeance.
They had fought a kill-or-be-killed struggle.
Ralph was even a follower of the Black Mage.
Despite that, El Pam had two reasons for making this proposal to Ralph.
One was that Ralph was an exceptionally skilled supporter.
‘Without him, Black Paradise could never have killed Mikhail.’
Not just skilled—he had helped kill the great Cygnus Knights’ commander.
His ability was beyond doubt.
The remaining issue was his character.
“You show up out of nowhere spouting this nonsense—seems like you’re not right in the head. You feeling okay?”
It couldn’t be good.
But whether it was good or not didn’t matter to El Pam.
He had seen it countless times.
In a world overflowing with monsters and rampant with the Black Mage’s followers, character didn’t matter for survival.
El Pam himself was proof.
El Pam, the Last Adventurer, hadn’t earned that sacred and glorious title because of his good character.
What mattered was something else.
“I’ll pay an upfront contract fee.”
The laughable reason mentioned earlier.
“Contract fee? How much?”
“Ten million mesos.”
He loved money enough to follow the Black Mage for it—more than anyone.
El Pam’s prediction hit the mark.
The moment the ten million mesos figure came up, Ralph’s expression changed.
Dibo’s did too.
“Boss, what are you saying? Ten million mesos?”
Dibo was no different when it came to money.
From his perspective, it was hard to accept some unknown guy here suddenly being offered ten million mesos.
More precisely, he couldn’t comprehend the conversation itself.
‘No, Boss! We don’t have ten million mesos!’
El Pam didn’t have ten million mesos to his name—he had spent most of his money repaying the debt to the Gapor Merchant Group.
Meaning he couldn’t show the money right now.
“You have ten million mesos on you right now?”
“I’ll receive it as a contract fee once I sign with the Gapor Merchant Group soon.”
“Soon?”
To the listener, such words were worthless nonsense.
“With the Gapor Merchant Group? Are you insane?”
That was the usual reaction.
But El Pam knew.
The man before him had fought the Cygnus Knights’ commander Mikhail as a Black Mage follower for money.
That was no ordinary feat.
Most sane people wouldn’t fight Mikhail even for 100 million mesos.
Ralph was that crazy for money.
To him, the ten million mesos bait was more than enough to get his blood pumping.
“An interesting story.”
That was when it happened.
“El Pam, so this is where you were. Excuse me for interrupting.”
An uninvited guest wedged between El Pam and Ralph.
“I’m Beju from the Kania Merchant Group. I’ve come to make a proposal to El Pam.”
10.
“I’m Beju from the Kania Merchant Group.”
Hearing that, Dibo and Ralph were shocked simultaneously.
They had no choice but to be.
‘Beju?’
‘The right-hand man of Evoke, the head of the Kania Merchant Group?’
In the port city Lis, anyone living here would know that name.
Of course, El Pam was different.
“I’ve come to make a recruitment offer to El Pam.”
The moment he heard it, El Pam thought,
‘The trap has arrived.’
Kania Merchant Group.
El Pam knew well.
‘Followers of the Black Mage.’
What kind of people they were.
In fact, El Pam had already noticed the Kania Merchant Group’s tail on him for a while.
He couldn’t have missed it.
Twelve gambling dens visited while wandering Lis’s slums.
If he hadn’t noticed a tail in so many places, he never would have become the Last Adventurer.
Of course, the recruitment offer from Kania Merchant Group now was outside El Pam’s expectations.
But he could read their intent.
‘They’ve figured out my situation.’
From the Kania Merchant Group’s perspective, who needed to lure El Pam somehow, the sight of him negotiating with Ralph must have looked appealing.
El Pam, losing the negotiation, would have no choice but to welcome their intervention.
“A recruitment offer?”
“I’ve heard the story. You demanded ten million mesos as a contract fee from the Gapor Merchant Group.”
He’d have no choice but to be tempted by this proposal.
“Will you give it?”
They weren’t idiots enough to actually hand over ten million mesos by butting in.
“If you pass the test.”
As mentioned before, the Kania Merchant Group just wanted to exploit the situation.
But Ralph, unaware of that, was different.
Ralph’s eyes changed.
‘Is this for real?’
El Pam’s ten million mesos no longer sounded like empty talk.
There was the condition of passing a test, but a huge sum was still at stake.
It was a good opportunity for El Pam.
‘Ralph has already made up his mind.’
The money-crazed man would now give the okay to El Pam’s proposal without hesitation.
Of course, El Pam knew.
“The test?”
‘It’s a trap.’
That the Kania Merchant Group had no intention of actually giving him ten million mesos.
Beju said to such an El Pam,
“There’s a Mystic Gate. Orange grade. Three wounds.”
Hearing that, Dibo and Ralph thought the same thing.
Not a bad test location.
Orange grade was perfect for El Pam, a 3rd Circle adventurer.
Three wounds wasn’t a small number, but suitable for checking skill.
In other words, there wasn’t the slightest whiff of a trap.
El Pam thought the same.
This alone wasn’t enough to tell if it was a trap or not.
So he needed more information.
“Where is this Mystic Gate?”
At the question, Beju replied,
“It’s in Henesys.”
In that moment, El Pam pulled a memory from his mind.
‘Could it be that Mystic Gate with a hundred wounds?’